Tuesday, October 04, 2011

There's a story today that they're trying to cut back financially behind the scenes at The Simpsons. Apparently Fox wants the actors to take a 45% pay cut; the actors are willing to take 30% if they can get a cut of merchandising and syndication deals. I don't know what could ever cause Fox to loosen their grip on Simpsons profits; frankly, they make so much money on the syndication now that it might be more profitable for them to just dump the show and let it run forever in syndication and make room for the newest Seth McFarlane piece of shit that looks like it costs eight bucks to produce.

My two reactions:

1. It's a fine example of the greed that's SOP at NewsCorp. Those actors have helped make that show a hit for two decades, and asking them to give up nearly half their pay is ridiculous. Doesn't it just feel like Fox is setting it up to get the actors to quit and then paint them as unreasonable?

2. If Fox does dump the show, it'll only be about 11 years after it stopped being consistently funny...

To me, your second point is more important. Does anyone really give a shit about "The Simpsons" anymore? The crap that's on TV now is so different from the funny, well-written, heartfelt cartoon that I grew up with that I don't even consider them to be the same show. It's waaaaay past its expiration date by now. Take said, I hope the actors stick it to Rupert Murdoch and his Evil Empire as hard as possible.